The expert who founded Safelawns.org offers insider's tips for achieving a lush, green lawn – without the use of toxic pesticides or chemical fertilizers.

Think of Your Soil as Alive

Think of Your Soil as Alive

If you want to be successful as a natural, organic gardener — or grow a healthy, organic lawn — you may need to think differently about your soil.

Organisms in the soil have the same needs we do: to drink, breathe, eat, digest and excrete. When the soil is healthy, fed with natural materials and not compacted, those natural processes allow fertilization and growth to happen the way Mother Nature intended. Organic fertilizer is actually soil food that nourishes the organisms, whereas chemical fertilizer feeds plants directly — but much of the chemical fertilizer runs off into lakes, oceans, rivers and groundwater. Growing grasses and other plants in healthy, living soil will make the plants more drought-tolerant, disease-resistant and maintenance-free.

For a video illustrating the difference between chemical soil treatments and organic soil management, check out “Organic Lawn Management, The Overview," at safelawns.org/video.cfm.

Test Your Soil First, Buy Nutrients Later

Test Your Soil First, Buy Nutrients Later

Never spend money on any fertilizer or soil amendment for your lawn or garden without first consulting the results of a soil test.

These diagnostic results — available from virtually all Cooperative Extension offices across the U.S. — will tell you exactly how much N (nitrogen), P (phosphorus) or K (potassium), lime, sulphur or other nutrients to add. Too much nitrogen and phosphorus can harm oceans, lakes, rivers and drinking water. Other excess nutrients can weaken and even kill grass and other plants.

The bottom line, in other words, is to avoid guessing. That can be bad, for the environment, for your landscape and for your pocketbook.